New ban by Lord's music to my ears

Ian Wooldridge

Last updated at 00:00 12 February 2000

LET US address that little problem about Lord's cricket ground, aka MCC, politely informing West Indian fans that theban on musical instruments and conch shell renditions will remain in place for this summer's visit to England by West Indies' cricketers.

Part of the problem is that when MCC decree anything like that they are lampooned as splenetic ex-colonial administrators choking on pink gins at the mere mention of the relaxation of any social mores they knew in 1923.

Happily, this is total rubbish. The membership of Marylebone Cricket Club comprises a wonderful array of bishops and adulterers, generals and spivs, former Cabinet Ministers and playboys of louche repute.

I was invited to become a member once but turned it down because I never wanted to be constrained from writing something awful about one of its members or any of its politics.

On this occasion, I totally support the decision to spare Lord's the cacophony that will be permitted on other Test grounds when the West Indians arrive, just as I detest the boring, witless drone that England's self-styled Barmy Army has inflicted on cricket grounds across the world.

In Barbados and Antigua I respect the noisy, musical local culture than engulfs a Test match. It is part of the fabric of the game there.